Vaqf Defter Dated in 1536 Related to Sanjak of Alaca Hisar

Abstract

In the Ottoman Empire and in the whole Islamic world, the most important organizations which were founded with religious and humanitarian aim were vaqfs. Generally, vaqf comprehends building of religious edifices such a mosques, mescides, mektebs, medreses, tekkes etc. In the Balkans, a lot of papers were written in this respect. The vaqfs of Alaca Hisar and Leskovac included in the vaqf defter which is a part of defter of Alaca Hisar Sanjak dated in 1536 and which is stated in this paper in the form of transcriptions and facsimiles, were studied as well. This and other vaqf defters reveals which public edifice belonging to the Islamic architecture was built during the period from the arrival of the Ottomans until the end of the 16th Century. This defter helps us to understand that it was possible to use active money in order to establish vaqf foundation not only foundations and real estate. This funding represented endowment money also given as loan debt with certain interest (ribh) (for example on every 10 due would be 11.5 or 12, and in general, the interest varied between 15-20% per year).